BJP proposing elimination of Constitution: Rahul Gandhi in Berlin

Leader of the Opposition and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has accused the BJP of proposing the “elimination of the Constitution,” which guarantees equal rights to all citizens, and said the opposition would build a system of resistance capable of removing the party from power.

Addressing students at the Hertie School in Berlin last week, Gandhi alleged that the BJP has mounted a full-scale assault on India’s institutional framework and taken control of it to consolidate political power, a challenge the opposition is now confronting.

In an hour-long video released by the Congress on Monday, Gandhi described India’s democracy as a global asset and said that the “assault” on India’s democratic system amounted to an attack on democracy worldwide.

“What the BJP is proposing essentially is the elimination of the Constitution. Elimination of the idea of equality between states, elimination of the idea of equality between languages and religions, elimination of the idea of the central core of the Constitution, which is that every individual will have the same value,” the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha told the students.

In the video titled Politics is the art of listening, Gandhi said the opposition must devise ways to respond when democracy comes under threat rather than merely pointing out flaws in elections. “We will deal with it, and we will create a method, a system of opposition resistance that will succeed. But, we're not fighting the BJP. You have to understand that we're fighting their capture of the Indian institutional structure,” he said.

Responding to questions from students, Gandhi alleged that institutions in India have been weaponised. “We fundamentally believe that there is a problem with the electoral machinery in India. The second thing is that there is a wholesale capture of our institutional framework. There is a full-scale assault taking place on the institutional framework of our country,” he said.

He also claimed that India’s institutions were no longer fulfilling their intended role. Drawing a comparison with Europe, Gandhi said that while European nations struggled to build the European Union, India formed an economic and political union in 1947, anchored in its Constitution.

“If you are going to have any conversation about democracy on the planet, you cannot ignore by far the largest and most complex democracy in the world. That is why I say Indian democracy is a global public good; it is not just an Indian asset, it is a global asset.

“So when I talk of the attack on the Indian democratic system, I don't say it, but it is actually an attack not just on the Indian democratic system, it is an attack on the global democratic system,” Gandhi said. Targeting the BJP, he claimed the Congress had conclusively shown that it “won” the Haryana election and asserted that “we actually don't feel that the Maharashtra election was fair”.

Gandhi also criticised central enforcement agencies such as the CBI and the ED, saying the Congress had helped build these institutions but never treated them as party property. “But, that's not how the BJP sees (it). It views the institutional framework of India as belonging to them. So they use it as a tool for building political power,” he alleged.

He further accused the agencies of being misused. “Going by the number of cases that the ED and the CBI have against BJP people and against the opposition, one would find that most of them are political cases,” he said.

The Congress leader also attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s economic policies, claiming they were an extension of the economic framework introduced under former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

“PM Modi, the BJP and the RSS have essentially taken the economic models of Manmohan Singh and taken them right forward,” he said, adding, “What Mr Modi is trying to do economically cannot go further... it is jammed.”

On the INDIA bloc, Gandhi said, “All parties of the alliance do not agree with the basic ideology of the RSS... we are very much united on that question.”

“We have tactical contests, and we will continue to have them. But you will see that when it comes to the opposition requiring unity, that happens every day in Parliament. We are very united, and we will contest the BJP on laws that we disagree with,” he added. Gandhi visited Germany last week as part of an overseas tour.